


Your Logic Is Flawed

by Glinda



Category: Big Bang Theory
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Transfic Mini Fest, Transgender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-29
Updated: 2010-05-29
Packaged: 2017-10-09 18:49:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/90427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glinda/pseuds/Glinda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonard reacts just the way Penny thought he would - badly; it's Sheldon's reaction that's surprising</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Logic Is Flawed

**Author's Note:**

> Written for kanata in the [Transfic Mini-Fest](http://kanata.dreamwidth.org/1255196.html). (Prompt: 'Big Bang Theory, Penny, Leonard reacts just the way Penny thought he would - badly; it's Sheldon's reaction that's surprising') I'm not a huge fan of BBT but I do adore Penny and Sheldon's friendship so the story's more about that then the other things happening in the story.

"You are being most irrational, Leonard. It is hardly uncommon for young actresses to have plastic surgery in an attempt to improve their career prospects. It is certainly a sad reflection on our society that Penny felt that she had to have surgery to be successful but she certainly doesn't need you being all judgemental about it."

Penny can't hear what Leonard says in response to that but she can hear the frustration in his tone at Sheldon's apparently wilful missing of the point, especially as Sheldon goes off on a tangent about rates of body dysmorphic disorder in the entertainment and sports industries.

She reaches the landing with her laundry just as Sheldon interrupts Leonard's whining about trust and being lied to and false pretences that makes her want smack him in the face.

"This conversation is adjourned until you can converse like a rational human being again."

Leonard disappears back into their apartment, slamming the door and pretending that he hasn't seen her standing there. She's not surprised by his reaction, she purposefully hadn't told him because she knew he'd take it like this. She's dated a grand total of one guy who took it well and then he went and screwed it up by writing about their sex life on the internet. After that she felt Leonard couldn't exactly talk about feeling betrayed and having his trust abused.

"Your boyfriend," comments Sheldon abstractly, "is making less sense than normal."

"He's not my boyfriend anymore," Penny replies and she's pleased to realise that her voice sounds more disappointed than sad now. She can't seem to summon the energy to be properly angry or upset anymore, feeling only resignation and disappointment. Sheldon stares hard at her for a long moment before speaking again.

"Hmmm…a remarkably sensible move. There may yet be hope for you."

She's not sure if he really is as clueless about her surgery as he was making out to Leonard but he follows her into her apartment and they spend half an hour arguing about her choice in soap powder. After he's gone she catches her reflection in the bathroom mirror and realises she's smiling for the first time since she found Leonard freaking out in the middle of her apartment two days previously.

~

A few days later and she's got the spring back in her step. Her other friends are demonstrably unsurprised by the implosion of her relationship with Leonard and don't push her about the reason which leaves her both relieved and faintly depressed. Today's audition has actually gone well; who knew living across the hall from a bunch of physicists would actually help her get a job? She'd spent the afternoon spouting scientific gobbledegook while looking attractive yet unobtainable in a lab coat and the adverts' casting team had look impressed. Except, she clearly had been spending too much time with the boys because she was fairly certain the so-called science didn't only make no sense at all, it was also utterly wrong and she needed to know for sure. If she was going to be selling dodgy science she wanted to know she was selling dodgy science; she might really need the job but she had some standards.

It was pure habit that took her into the flat in search of Sheldon and without knocking. She regretted her decision instantly, realising that Leonard might be in. All attention for the moment however, was focused on the argument that Sheldon and Howard were having.

"…not natural, Sheldon," protests Howard.

"Your arguments are every bit as flawed as Leonard's. Penny's previous condition is perfectly natural. Admittedly it is neither right nor fair that she should be born into a body whose sex did not match her gender. But claiming that she shouldn't have got that fixed is at nonsensical as saying that someone born with, say a badly twisted knee, should spend their whole life hobbling around on crutches and in pain instead of having an operation that would let them walk easily and painlessly…"

Sheldon sounds frustrated now, perplexed and unhappy as though he genuinely cannot understand why they don't see how little sense they are making. If he were anyone but Sheldon she would hug him, aversion to hugs or not, but he is so she doesn't. Raj is looking up at her from the sofa eyes wide and every bit as unable to form a sentence to her as he normally is around her. The others are oblivious to her presence and Sheldon is reeling off facts and figures, drugs and operations she might have had, statistics of all kinds, so she nods silently to Raj and leaves quietly because she already knows this. She doesn't need to hear all the dangers of her life, how precarious her safety still is even after all these years. Sheldon may be right that the boys need to hear it, but she doesn't need a reminder, she lives it every day. Most days she can forget but today is not one of those days.

~

A couple of weeks later they're driving somewhere, just her and Sheldon, and Penny realises that she has no idea where they're going. No doubt Sheldon will tell her off if she misses the turning so she doesn't worry about it too much. He's having a rant about the utter stupidity of the people he's sharing a lab with and their general inability to acknowledge his supreme genius, which is pretty much par for the course its so familiar and normal that it hurts a little. She feels his commentary dissolving into white noise as she concentrates on keeping her eyes focused on the road ahead of them. She doesn't realise she's crying until the stop light ahead of them goes all swimy and she reaches up to rub her eyes and finds her cheeks are already wet. Also Sheldon is trying to steal the steering wheel from her and some of the white noise he's making is probably either him insulting her driving or some variation of 'oh god, oh god, we're all going to die'. He may actually have a point so she just smacks his arm until he gives her back control of the wheel and pulls the car over.

Sheldon watches her looking puzzled for a long moment while she cries and tries and fails to form an explanation that won't be drowned by a sob in her throat. After a long moment he sighs in a put upon fashion, rescues some tissues from the glove compartment and begins to methodically clean her face, tears and makeup alike disappearing from her face in the face of his steady touch. It's not a remotely tender gesture, not really, it reminds Penny of sitting in the ER having a nurse clean the cuts and abrasions on her face, antiseptic wipes removing blood, grit and tears with the same professional detached touch. What she really wants is for someone to give her a hug and tell her everything will be alright, instead she's sitting in her car with the least empathic or physically affectionate person she knows.

"How anyone ever spent time with you and doubted for a moment you were a girl is beyond me," he comments, exasperation under-laid with something that feels like genuine confusion. "You have terrible taste in men for a start. Blow."

Penny blows her nose as instructed and feels her mouth curving into a smile at all the things he isn't saying. Sheldon gets this satisfied look he always gets when his theory has been proved correct and right now, Penny's quite sure no amount of hugs and platitudes could make her feel more accepted or cared for.


End file.
